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9780700627844

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What is it really like to fight on the ground in Afghanistan? In the tradition of David Halberstam's Vietnam War classic One Very Hot Day, Major Paul Darling takes you along on a perilous mission in treacherous Zabul Province. He's been there. He knows. When you read Taliban Safari, you'll know too. --Daniel P. Bolger, US Army lieutenant general, retired, veteran of Afghanistan and author of Our Year of War: Two Brothers, Vietnam, and a Nation Divided and Why We Lost: A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars I led a platoon in combat in a different war, in a different country. Yet I know this voice. It rings familiar and true. Major Darling appreciates the complexity of his situation but writes straightforwardly about it. He strikes a fine balance between an officer engaged in a mission, focused on the task at hand, and one reflecting on the experience. Taliban Safari tells us what it was like to be there coordinating a motley collection of soldiers and police as well as the moral calculus of the leader on the ground. --Alex Vernon, author of Soldiers Once and Still: Ernest Hemingway, James Salter, and Tim O'Brien and coauthor of The Eyes of Orion: Five Tank Lieutenants in the Persian Gulf War A gripping account of modern close combat in an ancient, far-off land. Paul Darling provides a gritty, close-up, and personal account of a day in the life of an infantry adviser to Afghan forces as they hunt and finally corner their Taliban foe. Provides the personal reality of modern counterinsurgency better than any other book out there. --Lester W. Grau, author of Operation Anaconda: America's First Major Battle in Afghanistan and The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War

What is it really like to fight on the ground in Afghanistan? In the tradition of David Halberstam's Vietnam War classic One Very Hot Day, Major Paul Darling takes you along on a perilous mission in treacherous Zabul Province. He's been there. He knows. When you read Taliban Safari, you'll know too. - Daniel P. Bolger, US Army lieutenant general, retired, veteran of Afghanistan and author of Our Year of War: Two Brothers, Vietnam, and a Nation Divided and Why We Lost: A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars I led a platoon in combat in a different war, in a different country. Yet I know this voice. It rings familiar and true. Major Darling appreciates the complexity of his situation but writes straightforwardly about it. He strikes a fine balance between an officer engaged in a mission, focused on the task at hand, and one reflecting on the experience. Taliban Safari tells us what it was like to be there coordinating a motley collection of soldiers and police as well as the moral calculus of the leader on the ground. - Alex Vernon, author of Soldiers Once and Still: Ernest Hemingway, James Salter, and Tim O'Brien and coauthor of The Eyes of Orion: Five Tank Lieutenants in the Persian Gulf War A gripping account of modern close combat in an ancient, far-off land. Paul Darling provides a gritty, close-up, and personal account of a day in the life of an infantry adviser to Afghan forces as they hunt and finally corner their Taliban foe. Provides the personal reality of modern counterinsurgency better than any other book out there. - Lester W. Grau, author of Operation Anaconda: America's First Major Battle in Afghanistan and The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War

Author Information

Paul Darling, Lieutenant Colonel, US Army (retired), is a senior industrial engineer in Kansas City, Missouri. His writing has been published in various venues including Defense News, Proceedings, Military Review, Armed Forces Journal, and Air and Space Power Journal.

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